Return to the Sierra

So after returning from the Rockies, I set my sights on finally getting myself a Golden.

My buddy Brandon and I decided to do a two night trip to the Eastern Sierra to a lake that is known to have some quality Goldens and Lahontan Cutthroat.

The hike in is one of the most enjoyable trails I have ever hiked. Many great vistas, and a nice steady grade in lieu of the standard granite boulder hopping I had become accustomed to in the Desolation.











After about 6 miles, we finally made it to our destination that was just ridding itself of its last snow.



We set up camp and this is our front yard.



Not 100 feet behind our tent was this awesome view. An amazing place to sit as the sun goes down.



Soon after arrival we got to fishing. It was tough going, but after a couple hours I was rewarded with a hard won first Golden. And it was a good one!



We managed a few more small ones as the sun was setting that night. What colors!



The next morning, the fishing continued to be tough, but I did manage this awesome 20" Lahontan Cutthroat on a size 16 BWO nymph.

All told, this extremely dark nice sized Lahontan was the only fish of interest after the big Cutt.





The very next week, I made my first overnight with my girlfriend. We planned a quick easy overnight to familiar territory for our shakedown run. We had a great trip, with no major hiccups. Fishing was decent, and the views and experiences were great. She was now as hooked on the backcountry as I am.









Upon returning home, we immediately began planning for another overnight back into the Desolation for Gold! Had a great trip up a short but gnarly trail and managed a few of these little dudes. My first Desolation Goldens.





The moment I started to dive forward, I saw a nice golden not 5 feet in front of me. Swimming with Goldens, AWESOME!



After these quick succesful overnights, we started planning some longer trips, that I will cover in following updates! Thanks for reading.

Shenanigans!

Yes, I have been incredibly lax in my updates. Given the fact that all the places I want to fish are buried under feet of snow, I decided to do a large, all inclusive post covering the trips I made in the 2009 season after my last update.

I made many trips, and got to enjoy most of them with my girlfriend.

The first bit of High Country fishing that I have yet to catalog was my trip to visit family in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. I fished the Cimmaron River in New Mexico for a ton of nice sized wild Browns and Rainbows. It is a beautiful little tailwater fishery. Very lush surroundings and a thriving fishery. Despite its relatively diminutive size, it is purported to have 3,500 fish per mile! I fished EHC dries for the most part and had around 8-10 fish an hour for the 3 days I fished! What a blast!












After the Cimmaron, I fished a nearby lake for wild bows tailing in the shallows on Damsel nymphs. After hooking and breaking one off in the first 5 minutes, I spent another 5 hours searching for another bite. I eventually managed to get this one on a bugger and a sinking line.



After that, we headed to the mountains of southern Colorado to visit my hometown. I got to spend about an hour chasing these under appreciated beauties in moving water with a fly rod. Pretty sporty indeed!



The next day, I headed to the private property that my aunt and uncle care take for a wealthy Texan oil man. This property has two lakes that have BIG, MEAN, fly crushing Rainbows! Oh man, what a blast. These fish were stocked as fingerlings, and have grown to be very wild in their habits and appearance. In the 7 or 8 hours that I fished, I caught probably thirty fish on buggers and dries all between 17 and 22.5 inches. These fish are fat, and they fight like no other Rainbows I have ever seen. A complete blast watching these fish daintily sip a size 16 Elk Hair Caddis and then go ballistic when you drive the steel home!













That was it for my trip home to the Rockies, and man it was great. I love the California high country, but those mountains back home call to me on a daily basis and have a draw to them that is all their own.

I was gonna do a quick synopsis of the season and do it all in one post, but I can see now, as is often the case, that once I get started talking fishing, it gets really hard to do a cliff notes version, so I will do the recap in several posts for ease of browsing.